Govt ?drops? plan to categorise hotels

IF SMALL and medium-sized hotels and restaurants had gone for bank loans to upgrade facilities at their establishments they would have fallen in a debt trap by now.

IF SMALL and medium-sized hotels and restaurants had gone for bank loans to upgrade facilities at their establishments they would have fallen in a debt trap by now.

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Thanks to government apathy, an ambitious plan drawn up in 2004-05 to ‘categorise’ all the small and medium-sized hotels and restaurants in the city as per facilities offered has got a silent burial in the New Year.

If implemented, the plan could have brought about value addition in the facilities of a total of 185 hotels and 25 restaurants in the city with the introduction of a “unique certification” not offered by any State in the country.

The State Government had plans to provide A, A+, B, B+ category status to all small and medium-sized hotels and restaurants in the city. The hoteliers had welcomed the move in 2004.

“Throughout most of 2005, we kept asking senior government officials for a copy of the government notification which talked about categorizing hotels and restaurants in the city. Finally, we heard that the entire plan is difficult to implement,” Rajeshwar Agarwal, secretary general of Lucknow Hotel & Restaurant Association told HT. “We (hoteliers) had welcomed the plan but later were in for a shock to find that it contained a lengthy fee structure with a long list of formalities to apply for seeking a category certificate from the government,” he said.

In 2004, the hoteliers and restaurant owners had told the State Government that none of them had the financial wherewithal to take up a project of a size which required sourcing of costly furniture and air-conditioning equipment in the absence of any financial assistance from the government.

“We had told the government that the revenue generated from luxury tax collection can be easily turned into subsidy for offering financial assistance to hoteliers and restaurant owners to bring value addition in facilities demanded by the government order on categorizing hotels and restaurants,” Agarwal said. Some of the hoteliers and restaurant owners had even put a precondition for bringing about value addition in the facilities in their properties if the government decided to provide details of restaurants in its official tourism website, apart from hotels in the city.

“The chapter on categorizing hotels is permanently closed or so it seems. It’s a blessing in disguise for hoteliers as any investment made for value addition would have been disastrous for hoteliers and restaurant owners,” Agarwal added.